Jill Soloway Just Gave The Best Speech About the 'All-Out Attack' on Female Artists

Jill Soloway, the creator of Amazon's Transparent, the show that follows the life of a father who is in the process of transitioning with his family. Soloway runs wifey.tv, a diverse video network for women. She recently gave a speech at a Wifey.tv sponsored event in Los Angeles called, "There's an All-Out Attack on Female Filmmakers."

 

@jillsoloway and Shaz Bennett talk in it out on stage at Wifey Presents @cinefamily!!

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Jul 26, 2015 at 8:04pm PDT

No one would look at Soloway and think that she's insecure or unsuccessful. She has a highly successful show on Amazon, she has 3 emmy nominations, and Transparent won a Golden Globe this year. Yet, despite all of these amazing accomplishments, Soloway acknowledged in her speech that she is "still constantly ashamed...I wake up in the middle of the night thinking, “Don’t do what you’re doing. Don’t write that thing.” I feel this way all the time."

It's important to women on Soloway's level to acknowledge their insecurities and vulnerabilites because it makes them... human. They, too, have moments of doubt, despite the level of visibility they have in their industry.

 

Can't get enough of the #GoldenGlobes? Check out pics from the #Transparent cast and crew viewing party here: https://bit.ly/1AJW3kS

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Jan 12, 2015 at 4:39pm PST

We picked out the 10 most moving lines from her speech. Here they are:

1. Soloway starts out her speech by saying that she recently woke up "to the state of emergency when it comes to the female voice that we’re currently in."

2. I think maybe two or three years ago I would’ve potentially said, “Men, it’s not really their fault [that] they have all the directing jobs. They’re not doing it on purpose. They have less to do than women, so they have more time on their hands.”

 

Nothing like that first cup of #coffee in the morning. #Transparent

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Jan 14, 2015 at 11:28am PST

3. In the Roger Ebert documentary [“Life Itself”], he talks about films being an empathy machine, so whoever the protagonist is, they’re going to have empathy and when men are making movies about men, they’re creating more empathy for the male gaze.

4. So the male gaze, because the men are subjects, necessarily divides us, divides women into either/or —the madonna or the whore, the slut or the good girl or the many, many ways in which women are divided to be seen as objects when the male character is the subject.

5. There is a real all-out attack on us having subjectivity, so I just beg everybody to be relentless in their pursuit of their voice, and also to be aware that even with all of the success I have where you’d feel I’m confident and I could do anything, I’m still constantly ashamed of myself.

6. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking, “Don’t do what you’re doing. Don’t write that thing.” I feel this way all the time. So I just want all the female creators to keep an eye out for that thing that says don’t do it, it’s not good enough, it’s not ready and you’re not right, and know that that’s the uninvited guest that’s always going to be there in your unconsciousness.

7. Women are shamed for having desire for anything - for food, for sex, for anything. We’re asked to only be the object for other people’s desire. There’s nothing that directing is about more than desire. It’s like, “I want to see this. I want to see it with this person. I want to change it. I want to change it again.”

8. All they told us our whole life is we’re too emotional to do any real jobs, yet they’ve taken the most emotional job, which is art making about human emotions and said we’re not capable of it.

9. I just want to make sure you know I’m always plagued by insecurities. The insecurities are always going to be there. Notice them when you’re there writing, when you’re trying to get your thing out there, when you’re setting up your night where you’re showing your films.

10. It’s always going to be there. The world, the matriarchal revolution, is dependent on female voices and speaking out loud. Please keep making things.